George Paxton I.9

SECT. IX.

ADVANTAGES RESULTING FROM THE OBLIGATION OF THE RELIGIOUS COVENANTS OF ANCESTORS UPON THEIR POSTERITY.

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1. THE obligation of the religious vows of ancestors impels to the performance of duty by very powerful motives. Every privilege bestowed by God, is an act of free and unconstrained beneficence. Every commandment enjoined by him, according to the Covenant of Grace, is also an instance of kindness, which none can force from him, and which none has a right to expect. Acts of undeserved goodness render God the natural and approved object of gratitude; and the debt of gratitude, it has been observed, approaches nearest to a full and complete obligation. These favours not only interest us in the glory of God; they also excite us to be the instruments of promoting his glory by our own personal endeavours. “The love and esteem,” says Dr. Smith, “which grow upon acquaintance and habitual approbation, necessarily lead us to be pleased with the prosperity of the man, who is the object of such agreeable emotions, and, consequently, to be willing to lend a hand to promote it. Our love, however, is fully satisfied, though his prosperity should be brought about without our assistance. All that this passion desires is to see him happy, without regarding who was the author of his prosperity. But gratitude is not to be satisfied in this manner. If the person to whom we owe many obligations is made happy without our assistance, though it please our love, it does not content our gratitude. Till we have recompensed him, till we ourselves have been instrumental in promoting his happiness, we feel ourselves still loaded with that debt which his past services have laid upon us.” The gratitude of the believing covenanter, excited by the loving kindness of God, will produce the same effects towards his divine Benefactor. His love will be pleased to see the glory of his heavenly Father displayed by the active exertions of others; but his gratitude will demand

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to open its own mouth in shewing forth his praise. The favours connected with covenant obligation excite, in the well disposed mind, a sentiment of pure and exalted gratitude.

Minute as the privilege for which we contend may appear, it renders the giver the natural and approved object of gratitude. It is on the part of God, a renewed grant, and on the part of his people a renewed acceptance of all the blessings of the new covenant. By this descending obligation, ancestors have the delicious satisfaction of seeing their posterity secured in these blessings, as well as themselves. They trust, that the name of Jesus shall, by their deed, be transmitted, precious as the ointment poured forth, to their succeeding race; and that their humble names will, for his sake, be held in honourable and everlasting remembrance. They expect when generations yet unborn will arise and call them blessed. They look forward to future times, and see their successors walking in the fear of God, recognizing their obligations, renewing their vows, and treading in their steps, holy, happy, and prosperous. These were the prospects of Israel at Jordan, and these might reasonably be their feelings; for such their descendents proved, while they observed the covenant of their fathers. “And all these blessings shall come on thee, said Moses to Israel at the renovation of their covenant, “if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God. Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep. Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store. Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out*.” Such anticipations as these, resting on so sure a foundation, must produce a powerful effect upon the hearts and conduct of religious progenitors.

But this obligation is calculated to kindle and direct the gratitude of the children as well as of the fathers. That God was pleased to take our fathers into covenant with himself, and to comprehend us in the same federal transaction, is an affecting consideration. To guard us by obligations so awful against the commission of sin, and to oppose so strong a barrier to the misery which it produces, is to load us with a debt of gratitude, which the ingenuous Christian will be eager to acknowledge by a life of active goodness. The man who does not recompense his benefactor, when he has it in his power, and when his benefactor needs his assistance, is no doubt guilty of black ingratitude; but far more guilty is the covenanter, who is cold to the interest of God,

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* Deut. xxviii. 2–6.

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and regardless of his glory. To every reflecting mind, such a character must be an object of the highest disapprobation.

The covenanter is impelled to duty by another obligation, which is still more powerful than that of gratitude: an obligation, the fulfilment of which may be extorted by force, and of which the violation naturally awakens resentment, and exposes to condemnation and punishment. This is justice; and the violation of justice is injury. He has entered into a covenant which deeply interests the glory of God, and the salvation of men. To violate his engagements, is to do real and positive hurt to his neighbour, and to injure the declarative glory of God. Such conduct is the natural object of resentment and condemnation. Conscience tells him that force may be used with the utmost propriety to punish his transgression. Therefore he feels himself bound and obliged, in a peculiar manner, to the observation of justice, which requires him to fulfil those solemn engagements.

Breach of covenant is an act of injustice which exposes the violator to the agonies of remorse. It fills his mind with shame, on account of the impropriety of his conduct, with grief, for the effects of it, and with terror, for the deserved punishment. Perhaps there are no sufferings equal to those of remorse; none which make so deep an impression upon our mind and conduct. But that tremendous feeling, the worm which never dies, is the natural concomitant of covenant-violation. On the contrary, the man who discharges his obligations with integrity, enjoys a serenity and peace with which a stranger cannot intermeddle. Hence it is, that they who are deaf to the voice of almost every other obligation, submit to the call of justice, and perform their oaths. They fear the punishment which they know to be awaiting, and are allured by the sweet enjoyments of the upright soul. Thus, the obligation of a covenant, by seizing upon the strongest principles of our nature, stimulates to a life of active obedience. No other obligation with which we are acquainted, no consideration whatever, exerts so powerful and lasting an influence upon the mind. But the force of a descending obligation is still greater than a personal one. For as God, the great party in a religious covenant, cannot fail to perform his part, in blessing his faithful people according to his promise, the longer it has continued, and the more generations it has reached, the more numerous and decisive are the proofs which the covenanter obtains of the divine goodness and truth; and, consequently, the descendent has the greater inducement to active obedience, and the more reason to fear the violation of his engagement. This, accordingly, is one of the principal arguments which God condescends to use, when he warns his

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people of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. He threatens his ancient Israel with sore calamities, if they broke the covenant into which they had entered. “But, if you break my covenant, I also will do this unto you: I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain; for your enemies shall eat it*.” The same argument Moses repeats and urges with great earnestness in his farewell address, part of which is expressed in these striking terms: “All nations shall say, Wherefore hath the Lord done this unto this land? What meaneth the heat of this great anger? Then men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord God of their fathers†.” When his ancient people neglected to obey his voice, he sent his angel to expostulate with them, and put them in mind of his covenant. “I said, I will never break my covenant with you. But ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye done this?” The power of covenant obligation was clearly exemplified on this occasion. “And it came to pass, when the angel of the Lord spake these words unto all the children of Israel, that the people lift up their voice and wept‡.” After many generations, Jeremiah is sent to rebuke the disobedient Jews, and proclaim God’s covenant. “Say thou unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Cursed be the man that obeyeth not the words of this covenant which I commanded your fathers§.” And, in fine, when the Apostles pressed the Jews to believe in Christ, this was still the argument which the Spirit of God employed. “Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, and in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed||.”

2. This doctrine restores and confirms our confidence in the mercies of God. To create and establish confidence are among the principal uses of a covenant among men. Society cannot subsist without justice; and we cannot be sure of a man’s justice but by his solemn engagements. To this contrivance we fly as the last refuge from the injustice of men; but after they have plighted their faith with the solemnity of an oath, no reasonable doubt of their fidelity can remain. So desirous is man to repose his trust upon covenanted veracity, that he spurns the suspicion of treachery, as ungenerous if not unjust, and blames himself for harbouring it for one moment: and it is not till after the clearest evidences of dishonesty, and the expence of a violent struggle with himself, that he can believe his neighbour capable of acting so wicked a

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* Lev. xxvi. 14.

† Deut. xxix. 20.

‡ Jud. ii. 1, 4.

§ Jer. xi. 10.

|| Acts iii. 25.

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part as to violate such an obligation. These observations apply with equal propriety to the original contractors and their successors. The man whose estate is secured to him by solemn covenant, transmits his claim without fear to his heir, who enjoys it in perfect security, and leaves it with the same confidence to the generation following. Though there is no reason to question the veracity of God, yet, in gracious condescension to the weakness of his people, and that they might have a strong consolation, he has confirmed the exceeding great and precious promises with his oath. For the same reasons he entered into covenant with his church, and secured to the primary and succeeding generations of his people, all the blessings of eternal life. This proceeding of our Heavenly Father composes the troubled soul. When the backsliding Christian comes to himself, and thinks of returning to his Father’s house, he is ready to be distracted with the apprehension that he will refuse him admission, and banish him from his presence for ever: but the recollection of his covenant allays his fears, and inspires him with the hope that he is still waiting to be gracious, and will do as he hath said. In evil days, when the good man is perished out of the earth; and there is none upright among men; when the measure of iniquity is full, and the judge at the door, the mourner in Zion looks to God’s covenant, and finds rest to his soul. Should Israel say, when they were scattered among the nations for their iniquity, there is no hope, Moses directs them to the covenant of their fathers. “When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the Lord thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice, (for the Lord thy God is a merciful God,) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers, which he sware unto them*.” It was the same covenant which animated the soul of Micah, and filled him, in the worst of times, with triumphant confidence in the future prosperity of Israel. “He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities: and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old†.”

3. This obligation is a powerful argument in the mouth of the Christian at the throne of grace. May he not approach the Father of mercies and humbly put him in remembrance of his covenant, and earnestly plead the accomplishment? May he not venture to use the language of filial expostulation; Wilt thou not return and revive us again? Wilt thou not regard thine own glory? Why should the heathen say, Where

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* Deut. iv. 31, 32.

† Mic. vii. 19, 20.

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is their God? Our iniquities are many, our provocations are great, and thy displeasure is just: but when thou didst enter into covenant with thy people thou didst proclaim thy name, the Lord, the Lord God merciful and gracious. For such pleadings, we have the example of an inspired Prophet. On the footing of the Abrahamic covenant, Jeremiah earnestly pleaded the cause of offending Israel. While he was deeply affected with the approaching calamities of his country, and still more with their immoveable security and stupidity, he receives a commandment from God to pour out the distress of his soul in their presence, that they might be roused to make use of the same language, and offer up the same petitions which the Divine wisdom dictated to the Prophet on that occasion. After describing, in very tender and affecting terms, the miseries which the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, were soon to bring upon them, he draws near to intercede with God in their behalf. He humbly expostulates with him concerning their present deplorable condition; he acknowledges the wickedness of his people; he deprecates the Divine anger, and appeals to the honour and the promise of Israel’s covenanted God. “Hast thou utterly rejected Judah? Hath thy soul loathed Zion? Why hast thou smitten us, and there is no healing for us—do not abhor us, for thy name’s sake; do not disgrace the throne of thy glory: remember, break not thy covenant with us*.” This intercession accords with a promise which God gave to Israel in the wilderness; “If then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity; then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember†.”

4. God spares his offending people for the sake of the covenant which he made with their fathers. When God revealed to Moses the captivity of Israel, he promised to remember his covenant, and not make a full end of them in the day of his anger. “And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I am the Lord their God. But I will, for their sakes, remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt, in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God: I am the Lord‡.” God saw that the sins of his people would accumulate till it would be necessary to call them to account, and to punish them according to their deserts. But the

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* Jer. xiv. 19–22.

† Lev. xxvi. 40.

‡ Verse 44, 45.

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covenant of their fathers stood in the way and prolonged the day of mercy.

“And the Lord was gracious unto them, and had compassion on them, and had respect unto them, because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not destroy them, neither cast he them from his presence as yet*.” The singular appearances of Divine Providence, in favour of the British Isles, have been often and generally remarked. While the nations of the Continent have been frequently convulsed, we have lived in profound tranquillity, and laughed at the shaking of the spear. If the destroying angel has, at any time, visited this land, he has been soon commanded to put up his sword into the scabbard; and the incipient calamity was extinguished. When our iniquities provoked the Lord to threaten us with scarcity or famine, he quickly repented him of the evil, and rained down plenty about our habitations. When the distant settlements of Britain were wasted with the scourge of war, or the sweeping pestilence, no evil has been permitted to come near our dwellings. And, when the enemy threatened to invade and disturb our repose, He that sits King upon the floods, blew with his wind, and they were scattered, they sank as lead in the mighty waters. It was not the ocean which surrounds us, it was not the number and prowess of our fleets and armies, nor the wisdom of our councils, but the sword of the Lord, and the buckler of his favour that saved us. The means of salvation are with-held or taken away from the rest of the nations, or suffered to continue in a very imperfect state; but among us, the everlasting gospel has been preserved, and dispensed with great purity, for many ages. To us, the words of the Psalmist are remarkably applicable; “He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for his judgments they have not known them.” But far from being better than our neighbours, no nation ever treated the most solemn engagements to the service of God with the insolence of Britain. Our apostasy has been as singular as our privileges have been great and permanent. Other nations may be as vile in their principles, and as flagitious in their conduct; perhaps some may have outrun us in the career of iniquity; but what people were favoured with our advantages? And it would be no difficult task to show, that though we have long been lifted up to heaven, in point of wickedness we scarcely yield to the most profligate nation on earth. To what then must our great and lasting prosperity be owing? We believe, it has been great-

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* 2 Kings xiii. 23.

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ly owing to the covenants of our fathers, to which a faithful and gracious God has hitherto had respect.

5. The obligation of our fathers’ covenants recognized and felt, serves to keep up the remembrance of the great and glorious things which God has done for our land. The covenant which God made with Abraham and renewed with Israel at Sinai, David exhorts his people to remember; and couples it with the commemoration of the wonders which the most High had done for their nation. “Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him, talk ye of all his wondrous works. Be ye mindful always of his covenant, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations*.” To record the wonderful works of God is a reasonable, a delightful, and a commanded duty. “Remember his marvellous works that he hath done, his wonders and the judgments of his mouth, O ye seed of Israel his servant, ye children of Jacob his chosen ones.” How glorifying to God this duty is, may be seen by the memorials which he appointed among his ancient people to perpetuate the remembrance of the passage of Jordan†: And how provoking the forgetfulness of men, from the severe rebukes and heavy denunciations of his anger‡. The religious covenants of our fathers were struck in troublous times. They were preceded, attended, and followed, by many singular providences both of mercy and of judgment. It is no less our duty to remember the doings of the Lord, than it was the duty of Israel. But, if we do not take the same view of their covenant, as David did of that which God made with his fathers, we will soon forget the appearances of Divine Providence in their and our behalf. If we consider them as a detached race of men, with whom we have now little or nothing to do, the singular scenes which they witnessed, and in which they acted so conspicuous a part, will be viewed in the same light. They will soon be treated with contempt; or, if recollected at all, will become the scorn of the foolish or fiery partizan. The suspicion is well founded; for this has long been precisely the state of the public mind upon this subject. Many of those who profess to be the friends of religion, are heard to exclaim, “It is a matter of no moment to us, whether their proceedings in that period were right or wrong, since nothing but the Apostles and Prophets (Christ Jesus himself being the chief corner stone) are the foundation of the Christian church.” Who are desirous to lay the Reformers and their proceedings as a foundation to the Christian church? But are we not to record the wonders which God has done for his church in former times; and are we not to be followers of the saints?

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* 2 Chron. xvi. 9, 15.

† Josh. iv. 7.

‡ II. xvii. 10, 11.

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But how shall we obey these commandments, if we disregard the arm of Jehovah, and the zealous and faithful contendings of his servants? Rather than suffer the hated yoke of federal obligation, they will renounce all interest in the mercies of ancient days; they will confine their views to the contracted span of their own generation. But the covenanter, recognizing the obligation of his fathers’ religious vows, must behold those remote transactions with tender concern. He searches them out and records them in the tablet of his heart. He talks of them with holy and generous emotion to his children, saying, Come and I will tell what I have heard and known, and my fathers have told me. I will not hide them from my children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done*. Though they are the song of the drunkard and the derision of the fool, they animate the soul of the genuine covenanter in the house of his pilgrimage, and furnish him matter of spiritual rejoicing in the presence of God. Praise ye the Lord. I will praise the Lord with my whole heart in the assembly of the upright, and in the congregation. The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein. His work is honourable and glorious: and his righteousness endureth for ever. He hath made his wonderful works to be remembered: the Lord is gracious and full of compassion. He hath given meat unto them that fear him: he will ever be mindful of his covenant†.

6. This obligation promotes a spirit of enquiry. The covenants of our fathers, and all proceedings of a similar nature, are falsely charged with damping the active powers of the mind. The commandment of the Apostle to the churches never can be superseded, and should be daily observed: “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God‡.” The obligation of our fathers’ covenants seconds the authority of this precept, by creating a desire to know what we are bound to observe or avoid. As we never can be bound to adhere to any article which contradicts revelation, if our inquiries be carried on with suitable humility and candour, we may prosecute them without hesitation. The result will ever, by the blessing of God, be favourable to truth. The excellence of the church’s former attainments will be more clearly seen, and more justly appreciated; the mistakes which may be discovered in her profession will be rectified; and the chasms will be filled up. Thus, a descending obligation promotes reformation both in faith and practice. These are certainly the effects which civil obligations produce. Most persons will be eager to know

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* Ps. lxxviii. 1, &c.

† Ps. cxi. 1—5.

‡ 1 John iv. 1.

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the contents of those contracts which have devolved upon them by the death of their progenitors. They will enquire, when they succeed to the inheritance of their fathers, whether any engagements exist, and what is their nature; lest, by neglecting or transgressing them, they expose themselves to the loss of reputation or property. The same must have been the effect which the Sinaitic covenant produced among the people of Israel. When they saw it exerting its obligation upon every succeeding generation; when they beheld the Jewish nation happy or miserable, as they attended to its requirements; and when they found that the transgression of every individual was liable to be punished, till his field became a desolation, and his house a dung-hill, they must have felt a powerful inclination to inquire what were the articles of this awful transaction.

7. This obligation promotes the unity of the church. The Sinaitic covenant embraced all the generations of Israel, and consolidated them into one society. The covenanter who believes and acts upon this doctrine, will not view himself as a solitary individual, and the religious society to which he belongs as a detached body, which has, according to the modern opinion, little concern with ancestors, or their profession; but as a portion of a current society, connected by ties, of an intimate and endearing kind, both with the past and with the future. He looks back to his fathers who have entered into their rest, and is fired with a noble ambition to emulate them in the career of righteousness. He looks forward with joyful eyes into futurity, and welcomes the embryo generations of the godly, which he descries in long succession, advancing to the borders of time, and entering, in their turn, upon the scene which he is soon to leave. Thus, a descending obligation, by giving a wider range to the religious exercises and feelings of the Christian; by enlarging, enriching, and adorning his prospects; by connecting more closely the members of the church and the ways of Providence respecting their salvation, opens new sources of enjoyment, and, at once, encreases the sum of happiness to men, and of glory to God.